Difficult Passages in King Lear

The following are notes on some passages where I have not been able to
accept any of the current interpretations, or on which I wish to express
an opinion or represent a little-known view.

1. Kent's soliloquy at the end of II. ii.

(a) In this speech the application of the words 'Nothing, almost sees
miracles but misery' seems not to have been understood. The 'misery' is
surely not that of Kent but that of Lear, who has come 'out of heaven's
benediction to the warm sun,' i.e. to misery. This, says Kent, is just
the situation where something like miraculous help may be looked for;
and he finds the sign of it in the fact that a letter from Cordelia has
just reached him; for his course since his banishment has been so
obscured that it is only by the rarest good fortune (something like a
miracle) that Cordelia has got intelligence of it. We may suppose that
this intelligence came from one of Albany's or Cornwall's servants, some
of whom are, he says (III. i. 23),

to France the spies and speculations
Intelligent of our state.

(b) The words 'and shall find time,' etc., have been much discussed.
Some have thought that they are detached phrases from the letter which
Kent is reading: but Kent has just implied by his address to the sun
that he has no light to read the letter by1. It has also been
suggested that the anacoluthon is meant to represent Kent's sleepiness,
which prevents him from finishing the sentence, and induces him to
dismiss his thoughts and yield to his drowsiness. But I remember nothing
like this elsewhere in Shakespeare, and it seems much more probable that
the passage is corrupt, perhaps from the loss of a line containing words
like 'to rescue us' before 'From this enormous state' (with 'state' cf.
'our state' in the lines quoted above).

When we reach III. i. we find that Kent has now read the letter; he
knows that a force is coming from France and indeed has already 'secret
feet' in some of the harbours. So he sends the Gentleman to Dover.

2. The Fool's Song in II. iv.

At II. iv. 62 Kent asks why the King comes with so small a train. The
Fool answers, in effect, that most of his followers have deserted him
because they see that his fortunes are sinking. He proceeds to advise
Kent ironically to follow their example, though he confesses he does not
intend to follow it himself. 'Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs
down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following it: but the great one
that goes up the hill, let him draw thee after. When a wise man gives
thee better counsel, give me mine again: I would have none but knaves
follow it, since a fool gives it.

That sir which serves and seeks for gain,
And follows but for form,
Will pack when it begins to rain,
And leave thee in the storm.
But I will tarry; the fool will stay,
And let the wise man fly:
The knave turns fool that runs away;
The fool no knave, perdy.

The last two lines have caused difficulty. Johnson wanted to read,

The fool turns knave that runs away,
The knave no fool, perdy;

i.e. if I ran away, I should prove myself to be a knave and a wise
man, but, being a fool, I stay, as no knave or wise man would. Those who
rightly defend the existing reading misunderstand it, I think.
Shakespeare is not pointing out, in 'The knave turns fool that runs
away,' that the wise knave who runs away is really a 'fool with a
circumbendibus,' 'moral miscalculator as well as moral coward.' The Fool
is referring to his own words, 'I would have none but knaves follow [my
advice to desert the King], since a fool gives it'; and the last two
lines of his song mean, 'The knave who runs away follows the advice
given by a fool; but I, the fool, shall not follow my own advice by
turning knave.'

For the ideas compare the striking passage in Timon, I. i. 64 ff.

3. 'Decline your head.'

At IV. ii. 18 Goneril, dismissing Edmund in the presence of Oswald,
says:

This trusty servant
Shall pass between us: ere long you are like to hear,
If you dare venture in your own behalf,
A mistress's command. Wear this; spare speech;
Decline your head: this kiss, if it durst speak,
Would stretch thy spirits up into the air.

I copy Furness's note on 'Decline': 'STEEVENS thinks that Goneril bids
Edmund decline his head that she might, while giving him a kiss, appear
to Oswald merely to be whispering to him. But this, WRIGHT says, is
giving Goneril credit for too much delicacy, and Oswald was a
"serviceable villain." DELIUS suggests that perhaps she wishes to put a
chain around his neck.'

Surely 'Decline your head' is connected, not with 'Wear this' (whatever
'this' may be), but with 'this kiss,' etc. Edmund is a good deal taller
than Goneril, and must stoop to be kissed.

4. Self-cover'd.

At IV. ii. 59 Albany, horrified at the passions of anger, hate, and
contempt expressed in his wife's face, breaks out:

See thyself, devil!
Proper deformity seems not in the fiend
So horrid as in woman.

The passage has been much discussed, mainly because of the strange
expression 'self-cover'd,' for which of course emendations have been
proposed. The general meaning is clear. Albany tells his wife that she
is a devil in a woman's shape, and warns her not to cast off that shape
by be-monstering her feature (appearance), since it is this shape alone
that protects her from his wrath. Almost all commentators go astray
because they imagine that, in the words 'thou changed and self-cover'd
thing,' Albany is speaking to Goneril as a woman who has been changed
into a fiend. Really he is addressing her as a fiend which has changed
its own shape and assumed that of a woman; and I suggest that
'self-cover'd' means either 'which hast covered or concealed thyself,'
or 'whose self is covered' [so Craig in Arden edition], not (what of
course it ought to mean) 'which hast been covered by thyself.'

Possibly the last lines of this passage (which does not appear in the
Folios) should be arranged thus:

In V. i. there first enter Edmund, Regan, and their army or soldiers:
then, at line 18, Albany, Goneril, and their army or soldiers. Edmund
and Albany speak very stiffly to one another, and Goneril bids them
defer their private quarrels and attend to business. Then follows this
passage (according to the modern texts):

Alb. Let's then determine
With the ancient of war on our proceedings.Edm. I shall attend you presently at your tent.Reg. Sister, you'll go with us?Gon. No.Reg. 'Tis most convenient: pray you, go with us.Gon. [ Aside ] O, ho, I know the riddle.--I will go.As they are going out, enter EDGAR disguised.Edg. If e'er your grace had speech with man so poor,
Hear me one word.Alb. I'll overtake you. Speak.
[ Exeunt all but ALBANY and EDGAR.

It would appear from this that all the leading persons are to go to a
Council of War with the ancient (plural) in Albany's tent; and they are
going out, followed by their armies, when Edgar comes in. Why in the
world, then, should Goneril propose (as she apparently does) to absent herself from the Council; and why,

still more, should Regan object to
her doing so? This is a question which always perplexed me, and I could
not believe in the only answers I ever found suggested, viz., that Regan
wanted to keep Edmund and Goneril together in order that she might
observe them (Moberly, quoted in Furness), or that she could not bear to
lose sight of Goneril, for fear Goneril should effect a meeting with
Edmund after the Council (Delius, if I understand him).

But I find in Koppel what seems to be the solution
(Verbesserungsvorschläge, p. 127 f.). He points out that the modern
stage-directions are wrong. For the modern direction 'As they are going
out, enter Edgar disguised,' the Ff. read, 'Exeunt both the armies.
Enter Edgar.' For 'Exeunt all but Albany and Edgar' the Ff. have
nothing, but Q1 has 'exeunt' after 'word.' For the first direction
Koppel would read, 'Exeunt Regan, Goneril, Gentlemen, and Soldiers': for
the second he would read, after 'overtake you,' 'Exit Edmund.'

This makes all clear. Albany proposes a Council of War. Edmund assents,
and says he will come at once to Albany's tent for that purpose. The
Council will consist of Albany, Edmund, and the ancient of war. Regan,
accordingly, is going away with her soldiers; but she observes that
Goneril shows no sign of moving with her soldiers; and she at once
suspects that Goneril means to attend the Council in order to be with
Edmund. Full of jealousy, she invites Goneril to go with her. Goneril
refuses, but then, seeing Regan's motive, contemptuously and ironically
consents (I doubt if 'O ho, I know the riddle' should be 'aside,' as in
modern editions, following Capell). Accordingly the two sisters go out,
followed by their soldiers; and Edmund and Albany are just going out, in
a different direction, to Albany's tent when Edgar enters. His words
cause Albany to stay; Albany says to Edmund, as Edmund leaves, 'I'll
overtake you'; and then, turning to Edgar, bids him 'speak.'

6. V. iii. 151 ff.

When Edmund falls in combat with the disguised Edgar, Albany produces
the letter from Goneril to Edmund, which Edgar had found in Oswald's
pocket and had handed over to Albany. This letter suggested to Edmund
the murder of Albany. The passage in the Globe edition is as follows:

Gon. This is practice, Gloucester:
By the law of arms thou wast not bound to answer
An unknown opposite: thou art not vanquish'd,
But cozen'd and beguiled.Alb. Shut your mouth, dame,
Or with this paper shall I stop it: Hold, sir;
Thou worse than any name, read thy own evil:
No tearing, lady; I perceive you know it.
[Gives the letter to Edmund.Gon. Say, if I do, the laws are mine, not thine:
Who can arraign me for't?Alb. Most monstrous! oh!
Know'st thou this paper?Gon. Ask me not what I know. [ExitAlb. Go after her: she's desperate: govern her.Edm. What you have charged me with, that have I done;
And more, much more; the time will bring it out.
'Tis past, and so am I. But what art thou
That hast this fortune on me?

The first of the stage-directions is not in the Qq. or Ff.: it was
inserted by Johnson. The second ('Exit') is both in the Qq. and in the
Ff., but the latter place it after the words 'arraign me for't.' And
they give the words 'Ask me not what I know' to Edmund, not to Goneril,
as in the Qq. (followed by the Globe).

I will not go into the various views of these lines, but will simply say
what seems to me most probable. It does not matter much where precisely
Goneril's 'exit' comes; but I believe the Folios are right in giving the
words 'Ask me not what I know' to Edmund. It has been pointed out by
Knight that the question 'Know'st thou this paper?' cannot very well be
addressed to Goneril, for Albany has already said to her, 'I perceive
you know it.' It is possible to get over this difficulty by saying that
Albany wants her confession: but there is another fact which seems to
have passed unnoticed. When Albany is undoubtedly speaking to his wife,
he uses the plural pronoun, 'Shut your mouth, dame,' 'No tearing,
lady; I perceive you know it.' When then he asks 'Know'st thou this
paper?' he is probably not speaking to her.

I should take the passage thus. At 'Hold, sir,' [omitted in Qq.] Albany
holds the letter out towards Edmund for him to see, or possibly gives it
to him.2 The next line, with its 'thou,' is addressed to Edmund,
whose 'reciprocal vows' are mentioned in the letter. Goneril snatches at
it to tear it up: and Albany, who does not know whether Edmund ever saw
the letter or not, says to her 'I perceive you know it,' the 'you'
being emphatic (her very wish to tear it showed she knew what was in
it). She practically admits her knowledge, defies him, and goes out to
kill herself. He exclaims in horror at her, and, turning again to
Edmund, asks if he knows it. Edmund, who of course does not know it,
refuses to answer (like Iago), not (like Iago) out of defiance, but from
chivalry towards Goneril; and, having refused to answer this charge,
he goes on to admit the charges brought against himself previously by
Albany (82 f.) and Edgar (130 f.). I should explain the change from
'you' to 'thou' in his speech by supposing that at first he is speaking
to Albany and Edgar together.

7. V. iii. 278.

Lear, looking at Kent, asks,

Who are you?
Mine eyes are not o' the best: I'll tell you straight.Kent. If fortune brag of two she loved and hated (Qq. or),
One of them we behold.

Kent is not answering Lear, nor is he speaking of himself. He is
speaking of Lear. The best interpretation is probably that of Malone,
according to which Kent means, 'We see the man most hated by Fortune,
whoever may be the man she has loved best'; and perhaps it is supported
by the variation of the text in the Qq., though their texts are so bad
in this scene that their support is worth little. But it occurs to me as
possible that the meaning is rather: 'Did Fortune ever show the extremes
both of her love and of her hatred to any other man as she has shown
them to this man?'

8. The last lines.

Alb. Bear them from hence. Our present business
Is general woe. [To Kent and Edgar] Friends of my
soul, you twain
Rule in this realm, and the gored state sustain.

Kent. I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
My master calls me, I must not say no.

Alb. The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

So the Globe. The stage-direction (right, of course) is Johnson's. The
last four lines are given by the Ff. to Edgar, by the Qq. to Albany. The
Qq. read 'have borne most.'

To whom ought the last four lines to be given, and what do they mean? It
is proper that the principal person should speak last, and this is in
favour of Albany. But in this scene at any rate the Ff., which give the
speech to Edgar, have the better text (though Ff. 2, 3, 4, make Kent die
after his two lines!); Kent has answered Albany, but Edgar has not; and
the lines seem to be rather more appropriate to Edgar. For the 'gentle
reproof' of Kent's despondency (if this phrase of Halliwell's is right)
is like Edgar; and, although we have no reason to suppose that Albany
was not young, there is nothing to prove his youth.

As to the meaning of the last two lines (a poor conclusion to such a
play) I should suppose that 'the oldest' is not Lear, but 'the oldest of
us,' viz., Kent, the one survivor of the old generation: and this is the
more probable if there is a reference to him in the preceding lines.
The last words seem to mean, 'We that are young shall never see so much
and yet live so long'; i.e. if we suffer so much, we shall not bear
it as he has. If the Qq. 'have' is right, the reference is to Lear,
Gloster and Kent.

_____

Footnote 1: The 'beacon' which he bids approach is not the moon, as Pope supposed. The moon was up and shining some time ago (ii. ii. 35), and lines 1 and 141-2 imply that not much of the night is left.

Footnote 2: 'Hold' can mean 'take'; but the word 'this' in line 160
('Know'st thou this paper?') favours the idea that the paper is still in
Albany's hand.]